Adil Najam
Pakistan is in tears today. Yet again.
70+ people are dead in Wah today, as yet another cursed suicide bomber targets Pakistan and Pakistanis. The Tehrik-i-Taliban has taken responsibility for them. Only two days ago, 32 people were killed in a suicide attack on a hospital in the northern town of Dera Ismail Khan. Meanwhile incursions and attacks into Pakistani territory by American forces continue and fighting between militants and Pakistani forces rages in Bajur and other areas, killing even more.
In what continues to be war on and in Pakistan, Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.
Some will call it the largest legacy of the Musharraf years. Some will read unstated messages within this murder and mayhem by these killers. Others will see it as the price in dead bodies that Pakistan pays in the War on Terror. Yet others will remind us that this is reaping what Gen. Zia-ul-haq sowed. There will be, I am sure, plenty more pontifications too – ranging from the absurd to the absurdly profound.
All I know is that today, yet again, Pakistanis die. Pakistan continues to cry.
Why must this murder and mayhem continue? I ask. When will it end? These, of course, are absurd questions themselves. Because we all know the answers. It will continue for as long as we let the killers kill and support their murders with our silence. Silence, of course, also kills. And some are condemned to cry silently.
We have to come up with a strategy to defeat the hopless message of Radical Islam.
I am afraid that unless we have a vision and resolve, the appeal of radical Islam will stop at nothing.
This is a fight that will not and can not be win without a clear strategy.
There is a lot of support for Radical Islam in Pakistan. Over past decades starting from Zia, we have raised a generation that knows nothing but violence.
This is a war that we will be fighting for long time.
Among ourselves, lets think through how to defeat the forces of darkness.
It is time for Pakistanis to stop being ambivalent about the Taliban and join the fight. The Taliban perpetrating these atrocities in the name of Islam are criminals and thugs. They are no friends of Islam, Muslims or Pakistan and they must be stopped, not for America’s sake, but for the sake of Pakistan.
Please read my post at http://www.riazhaq.com/2008/07/yet-another-peace-d eal-amidst-shia.html to get the full picture of Taliban’s ambitions and the ineptitude of our current leadership.
Talibans are simply cold blooded killers who kill innocent people anywhere. They must be rooted out with full force that can be employed. On top of it these guys have the guts to come on TV and admit it and our media earns cash and give them what they want and government sits and watches and ‘condemns’. Its always common people who have to pay the price.
A few people here are still fooling themselves by saying that outside countries are behind this. BUT THE TALIBAN HAVE THEMSELVES CLAIMED THEY DID IT AND ALSO THEY HAVE THREATENED THAT THEY WILL KILL EVEN MORE MUSLIMS AND PAKISTANIS IN THE FUTURE. That is what they are saying, guys!
It is sad a day for Pakistanis all humanity across the globe. Will Pakistanis wake up?